Piano Key Press Processor
The present invention relates to a piano key press processor for a piano keyboard, which analyzes the key press characteristics of simple chord voicings during play, flags the pressed keys having specific such characteristics, and repurposes those flagged keys, so as to play the chord in a more advanced chord voicing.
This application claims the benefit of prior Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/594,224, filed Dec. 4, 2017; prior Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/608,620, filed Dec. 21, 2017 and prior Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/717,057, filed Aug. 10, 2018.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is directed toward the playing of piano chords, and more specifically, toward the difficulty in playing advanced, piano chord voicings, such as, but not limited to, ‘open-position’ chord voicings.
For piano players with tiny to average-size hands, even for accomplished such players, open-position chords, where the chord notes extend beyond a one-octave range, can be difficult to reach with a single hand. Consequently, novice players might opt for two-handed playing of such chords. More accomplished players will often utilize a one-handed ‘rolling’ technique, which can also be quite difficult.
Hence the need for a simple method of playing advanced chord voicings. This invention provides just that by sensing piano key presses during play, flagging keys with specific key press characteristics, and repurposing those flagged keys as needed. This can be accomplished in many ways, including, but certainly not limited to, physical or electronic connections made between a keyboard and an invention implementation internal to a piano, MIDI I/O communicated with an invention implementation external to a piano, and audio signal I/O communicated with an invention implementation internal or external to a piano. It also can be applied to any type of piano, including, but again not limited to, digital, acoustic, and hybrid pianos.
For such an invention to be useful, the specific key press characteristics for which a key is flagged should NOT regularly occur during normal playing; otherwise, the repurposing could be initiated unintentionally. To guard against this happening, the present invention capitalizes on the fact that certain key press combinations, timing, and touch positioning, along with pressed key count and relative pedal press timing factored in supplementarily, are unlikely to be used during normal playing.
An example of an unlikely key press combination, with pressed key count factored in supplementarily, would be the concurrent pressing of two adjacent keys. It is not that such proximate key pressing is never used, it is just not normally used due to the dissonant sound of two notes played one semitone apart. Thus, if this unlikely scenario were detected during play, it would be safe to assume that the adjacent keys were intended to be flagged by the analysis for possible repurposing.
One example of unlikely key press timing, with pressed key count and relative pedal press timing factored in supplementarily, would be the playing of a chord with all its key presses having been simultaneously initiated, and at least one (but not all unless with concurrent pedal pressing) of its key presses being terminated immediately thereafter. If this unlikely scenario were detected during play, it would be safe to assume that the immediately terminated keys were intended to be flagged by the analysis for possible repurposing.
A second example of unlikely key press timing, with pressed key count and relative pedal press timing factored in supplementarily, would be the playing of a chord with two or more key presses (one or more with concurrent pedal pressing) having been initiated simultaneously, and one or more key presses being initiated slightly delayed. If this unlikely scenario were detected during play, it would be safe to assume that the slightly delayed keys were intended to be flagged by the analysis for possible repurposing.
To enhance the guard against unintentional repurposing in the above examples, relative pedal press timing could be further utilized supplementarily to direct whether or not the flagged keys should be repurposed.
An example of unlikely key press touch positioning would be designating a small area of each key as a control area, whereby, anytime a key press was detected in this area, that key would be repurposed. In order for this type of detection to be useful, the control area would have to be one that can be easily avoided during normal playing. Also, the touch sensors used to detect such key presses would have to be inexpensive, considering that one such sensor would be required for each of possibly 88 piano keys.
Although the sophistication of the control-area analysis described above is limited by the use of inexpensive sensors, it would be obvious to one skilled in the art that, if more extensive analysis were desired, use of additional and/or more expensive sensors would enable such analysis. For example, if the entire top surface of each key were outfitted with touch sensors equivalent to those of an iPhone or iPad touch screen, it would then be a simple matter to flag, say, a particular touch position along a pressed key, multiple touch positions along a pressed key, touch position sliding, and key press points relative to that of other pressed keys.
While outfitting each key with such touch sensors would enable a variety of additional repurposing possibilities, including incremental, sub-octave, multi-octave, and bi-directional note shifting, doubling, supplementing, and/or sliding, it would also contribute significantly to the expense to the invention, considering that as many as 88 keys would need to be outfitted in this way. To the contrary, only one of the preferred embodiments for the present invention requires more than a single inexpensive touch sensor per key, and most require no touch sensors at all.
It should be noted that the chord processing herein disclosed for piano key pressing, could be just as easily applied to key pressing unrelated to chords, to musical instruments unrelated to key pressing, to devices unrelated to musical instruments, and to other situations where events can be similarly repurposed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a piano key press processor for a piano keyboard, which analyzes the key press characteristics of simple chord voicings during play, flags the pressed keys having specific such characteristics, and repurposes those flagged keys, so as to play the chord in a more advanced chord voicing.
To illustrate this invention, there are shown in the accompanying drawings embodiments that are presently preferred, it being understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.
Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, wherein like reference numerals have been used throughout the various figures to designate like elements, there is shown in
For all figures, the various parts of the piano keyboard 1000 are numbered with four-digit numerals, and the key presses of the keyboard 1000 are numbered with three-digit numerals. Additionally, for all figures, key presses with the same first digit also have the same most recent initiation time, and the higher that first digit, the later that initiation time. Alternatively, for all figures, key presses with a first digit numeral greater than one, also have the same most recent initiation time as key presses with that first digit numeral decremented by one, and have a termination time immediately thereafter. For simplicity, this alternative is not specifically discussed in the following figure descriptions; however, it should be understood that it is always an option, and may even be a preferable option.
Claims
1. A piano key press processor for a piano keyboard, where said piano key press processor includes:
- means for sensing key press characteristics,
- means for flagging keys having specific said characteristics, and
- means for repurposing said flagged keys.
2. The piano key press processor as claimed in claim 1, where said key press characteristics include at least one of the following:
- key press timing,
- pressed key count,
- pressed key touch multiplicity,
- relative pressed key proximity,
- relative key press points,
- relative pedal press timing, and
- key touch positioning.
3. The piano key press processor as claimed in claim 1, where said sensing means include at least one of the following:
- key press timing sensors,
- key counting sensors,
- key touch multiplicity sensors,
- relative pressed key proximity sensors,
- relative key press point sensors,
- relative pedal press timing sensors, and
- key touch positioning sensors.
4. The piano key press processor as claimed in claim 1, where said repurposing mean includes at least one of the following:
- note muting,
- note replacing,
- note shifting,
- note doubling,
- note supplementing, and
- note sliding.
5. The piano key press processor as claimed in claim 1, where:
- said key press characteristics include at least one of the following: key press timing, pressed key count, pressed key touch multiplicity, relative pressed key proximity, relative key press points, relative pedal press timing, and key touch positioning; and
- said sensing means include at least one of the following: key press timing sensors, key counting sensors, key touch multiplicity sensors, relative pressed key proximity sensors, relative key press point sensors, relative pedal press timing sensors, and key touch positioning sensors.
6. The piano key press processor as claimed in claim 1, where:
- said key press characteristics include at least one of the following: key press timing, pressed key count, pressed key touch multiplicity, relative pressed key proximity, relative key press points, relative pedal press timing, and key touch positioning; and
- said repurposing mean include at least one of the following: note muting, note replacing, note shifting, note doubling, note supplementing, and note sliding.
7. The piano key press processor as claimed in claim 1, where:
- said sensing means include at least one of the following: key press timing sensors, key counting sensors, key touch multiplicity sensors, relative pressed key proximity sensors, relative key press point sensors, relative pedal press timing sensors, and key touch positioning sensors; and
- said repurposing means include at least one of the following: note muting, note replacing, note shifting, note doubling, note supplementing, and note sliding.
8. The piano key press processor as claimed in claim 1, where:
- said key press characteristics include at least one of the following: key press timing, pressed key count, pressed key touch multiplicity, relative pressed key proximity, relative key press points, relative pedal press timing, and key touch positioning;
- said sensing means include at least one of the following: key press timing sensors, key counting sensors, key touch multiplicity sensors, relative pressed key proximity sensors, relative key press point sensors, relative pedal press timing sensors, and key touch positioning sensors; and
- said repurposing means include at least one of the following: note muting, note replacing, note shifting, note doubling, note supplementing, and note sliding.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 13, 2018
Publication Date: Jun 6, 2019
Inventor: Gary S. Pogoda (Atlantic City, NJ)
Application Number: 16/189,315